Whitni Redman on front lines of COVID-19 testing at Texas Tech
In March, when lack of COVID-19 testing became a key issue in the battle to flatten the coronavirus curve, a Holyoke High School and McCook Community College graduate shifted her biomedical research pursuits in Texas to help administer a backlog of COVID-19 tests.
Whitni Redman, the daughter of Holyoke’s Jason and Misti Redman, was one of the first three graduate students at Texas Tech who volunteered to be trained to assist in COVID-19 testing at Texas Tech University Biological Threat Research Laboratory at the Institute of Environmental and Human Health.
“They were an amazing addition to the team and did an outstanding job — their time and contribution is greatly appreciated,” said Dr. Cynthia Reinoso Webb, biological threat coordinator.
Redman, who is on track to graduate in May of 2021, was in the midst of her thesis research focusing on increasing antibiotic potency for chronic infected wounds. That’s when Texas medical professionals were seeing spikes of the coronavirus in the area. They were having a difficult time keeping up with the testing and looked for qualified volunteers to meet the demand.
“I’m really pleased that Whitni chose to continue pursuing research after leaving McCook Community College, and proud that one of our alumni is helping battle the COVID-19 epidemic,” said Redman’s former biology instructor at MCC, Rob Bogardus.
For one crazy month, Redman was trained and signed on to work eight-hour shifts three to five days a week, while continuing to do what she could in her own academic research (less in the lab because of limited access and more in the thesis writing.) She assisted in processing the swabs, running tests on the samples and determining if the subject tested positive or negative for the coronavirus. The facility was the testing center for Lubbock, Texas, and the surrounding regions including the Odessa, Midland and Amarillo areas in Texas.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.